During a robotic welding additive manufacturing process, successive layers of metal material are build up to create a workpiece part. A robotic welding unit is used to build-up the workpiece part, layer-by-layer, over time as commanded by a robot controller of the robotic welding unit. The robot controller may include software that reads a 3D model of the workpiece part to be created using an additive (layer-by-layer) manufacturing process. The robot controller programmatically splits the 3D model into a plurality of layers and plans a welding path for each of the individual layers to perform the build-up of the part. An expected weld deposition is determined for each layer, resulting in an expected height for each deposited layer. However, as actual layer-by-layer welding proceeds, the actual resultant height for any given layer may deviate from the expected or desired height, due to factors such as, for example, surface conditions of the workpiece part substrate (e.g., temperature or position on substrate) and the accuracy with which certain welding parameters can be controlled. The average contact tip-to-work distance may be one of a simple mathematical average of the instantaneous contact tip-to-work distances determined for the current weld layer, a weighted average of the instantaneous contact tip-to-work distances determined for the current weld layer, or a running average of the instantaneous contact tip-to-work distances determined for the current weld layer.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional, traditional, and proposed approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems and methods with embodiments of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.